bitful

This is the very first dessert I ever made for Dr B. It was Valentine's Day and it was the first time I was cooking for him. The menu made entirely out of Dr Atkins' worst nightmares, also featured breadsticks with Parma ham, and spinach and sweetcorn lasagna.

Ah, those were the days. We had met twelve days before, after having both being single for a while, which means we were able to eat small portions of everything and burn everything off by doing lots of exercise (we were both unemployed and my gym and his Ju-jitsu club were our second homes).

These days we tend to have sugar-free jelly for dessert instead, and I can't remember the last time I made a tiramisu, but here it goes:

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• a pinch of salt
• 9 tablespoons sugar
• 300g mascarpone cheese
• sponge biscuits (use savoiardi biscuits in Italy, 'biscuits cuillère' in France)
• coffee
• grated dark chocolate
• (optional) rhum

Preparation

1. Make weak coffee (or dilute espresso with water) and let cool a little
2. If you wish, add liqueur to coffee
3. Mix together well the sugar and egg yolks until creamy and white-ish
4. Add the mascarpone cheese and whisk well
5. Add the pinch of salt to the egg whites and whick together until peaks are formed
6. Very slowly and gently fold the whipped egg whites into the yolks/mascarpone mix
7. Dip biscuits into the coffee and place alternate layers of biscuits and cream (starting with biscuits) into a container
8. Finish with a layer of cream
9. Sprinkle the grated dark chocolate on top
10. Chill for at least four hours, best overnight

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 11:12 pm and last modified on December 23rd, 2007 at 7:38 pm, and is filed under recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.